You are getting sleepy…
The next weapon in my arsenal against morning sickness/hyperemesis was hypnosis. I had just tried VitaminB6 and like everything else it had worked for a couple of days, kinda worked for the next day, then stopped working altogether. I had thought that it wasn’t really working, but when it stopped working I realised how well it was working!
Fortunately I got a phone call about hypnosis. My midwife had recommended an anaesthetist at the hospital I am booked in to and a member of the Australian Society of Hypnosis. He is doing a study into it and running a trial with self hypnosis CDs. He asked me about depression, which was interesting. The trial is also looking at the efficacy of self hypnosis being used in labour.
I have to admit that i was a bit sceptical. A has tried hypnosis to give up smoking, but it very much seems like the kind of thing that will work if you want it to work. I said to him half jokingly, it had better not work so well that I eat too much and put on 40kg! His voice was a bit like Alan Rickman’s, only with an Australian accent – perfect for hypnosis!
I met with him in the same ward where I gave birth to Willow (room 5), but we were in a different room. Would have been a bit distracting otherwise with all those memories and associations.
Which is what it was all about, really, associations. He did something similar to a guided meditation, reminded me of wind down times after yoga. I was kind of listening out for any mention of food but he mostly just spoke about feeling the baby grow (he was kicking me at the time! the baby, that is!) and connecting with the baby when we met. Lots of positive terms about being pregnant.
He spoke about being at the top of some stairs and taking steps down them to a safe place. My safe place is cuddled up in bed between A and W, so that’s what popped into my head.
He spoke about putting any burdens in a basket and letting them float away with helium balloons – I imagined a big black mess called fear and sent it skywards.
I actually started to feel like I was in quite a deep state, kind of like being asleep, but still aware of my surroundings.
He then brought me out and started talking about the trigger to self hypnotise. This is putting your left forefinger and thumb together. He ran me through the process of standing at the top of the stairs and going down to my safe place again.
He explained that it would take some time for me to feel better, that I might just realise one day that I don’t feel nauseous anymore. I can’t say that I could face a casserole, any kind of mince dish, anything gory, icky, yucky or gross or anything with sauce at the moment, but I’m sure that time will come.
Sam responds:
Posted: May 22nd, 2007 at 9:12 pm →
I have had hypnosis before, it is quite bizarre when you reach that semi-awake state you were talking about in the first session. The first time it almost feels, …. what’s the word… un-real? The doctor who is treating you isn’t named Con is he? lol, that is not supposed to be a pun, I really mean it, is his name Con? Must be hard to focus though when you are being kicked, be it by the doctor or a baby.
candi responds:
Posted: May 22nd, 2007 at 10:23 pm →
No, his name was Alan
It actually seems to be helping – did hypnosis help you?
Sam responds:
Posted: May 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 am →
Yes, I would say it did… and at the very least, I found it to be an extremely relaxing diversion. I thought it may be the husband of the woman who treated me because it was so very alike in imagery.
(p.s. Do you have some sort of ‘eat comments up plugin?’ A couple of times when trying to leave a comment it vanishes into the ether, and if I retry I get a ‘You have already said that’ page from WP. )
candi responds:
Posted: May 23rd, 2007 at 10:52 pm →
I’m glad to hear that it helped you.
Hmmm, not that I know of… A is about to install a new theme for me, so that might help.